SINGAPORE — The North East Line breakdown added to the Monday morning blues of tens of thousands of workers, who found their travel time nearly doubled in some cases, while students sitting for their A- and O-level exams, already dealing with pre-exam jitters, scrambled to get to their exam venues on time.

About 41,000 commuters’ journeys were affected today (Oct 26) as a result of the breakdown, which was caused by a power fault. 

Mr Sean Yeo, 33, an executive, left the house after services had resumed, and had seen the disruption notification on the Mytransport mobile application, still found himself in a post-breakdown snarl. 

Opting for the bus, as many others did, Mr Yeo said his journey took an hour and a half. “I reached (at) nearly 9am; normally I reach at 7.30am, just before 8am,” he said, adding his managers seemed understanding about such incidents.

The Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board (SEAB) said fewer than 20 GCE O- or A-level candidates reported late to their schools or other examination centres this morning as a result of the train disruption. Most of the affected candidates arrived within 30 minutes of the start of the exam, and they were given the full duration allocated for their papers, the board said in a statement. 

“We would like to assure examination candidates that they will not be penalised for being late if they have difficulties getting to their examination centres due to the major train service disruption,” the board added.

Jorell Ng, 16, a Secondary 4 student from Zhonghua Secondary School, was heading to the NEL platform at Outram station at around 6.40am, when he heard the announcement that train services were down on the NEL. 

“My teachers were desperately reaching everyone to tell them about the breakdown, even calling some of my classmates,” said Jorell, who was sitting for his Additional Mathematics paper 2 this morning. “We have a SMS relay system ... we relay messages in times like this before, like during the time school was cancelled due to haze.” 

While he could have headed to the nearest exam venue, Jorell was determined to get to his school. “Going to a new environment to sit for a national exam is going to be a huge distraction psychologically,” he said. Taking an alternative train route, he managed to make it in the nick of time. “Some of my cohort mates were not in my hall during the paper. I think they went to other schools,” he said. “I reached school perspiring non-stop, my shirt was wet.”

Nathanael Loo, 18, a Hwa Chong Institution second-year student, did not have a paper today, but said his school had given a pre-exam briefing on what to do should anything unexpected happen.

In a train breakdown for example, students are to contact their teachers in charge, who will instruct on what to do, based on their location at the time. “Personally, knowing that a train breakdown is a legitimate reason for being late, I am assured that my participation in the A-Level examinations will not be compromised in any way,” he said.  

The SEAB said it works with schools to remind candidates that if they cannot reach their schools in time due to a train disruption, they can take the examination at other schools near the MRT stations.